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Everyone is asked to get a flu vaccine every year to reduce the risk of infection and hospitalization.
And more than 100 million are lining up to receive the vaccine, particularly those 65 and older, and more than 70 percent of seniors in the U.S. are receiving it.
While the flu vaccine is widely recommended, doctors advise people to be careful what medications they use before or after getting vaccinated because some medications could decrease the vaccine’s effectiveness.
There are more than 295 medications that can interact with flu vaccines and make them less effective, from some over-the-counter pain relievers to treatments used to relieve arthritis pain or fight cancer.
About 41 million people are infected with the flu in the United States each year and 710,000 people are hospitalized. More than 36,000 people die from the infection, and up to 85 percent of deaths occur among people aged 65 and older.
But flu vaccination coverage is declining in the US, believed to be largely a result of the mass vaccination campaign and vaccine mandates during the Covid pandemic.
The most recent data showed that only 45 percent of adults 18 and older were vaccinated in the 2023 to 2024 flu season, a two percent decrease from the previous year.
Coverage hasn’t been this low since the 2017 to 2018 season, when 37.1 percent of adults showed up for a flu shot.
Health officials call for more people to get flu shots this winter
The flu vaccine was about 35 percent effective against hospitalization from the virus last year, studies suggest, less than the average of about 50 percent.
Effectiveness varies because experts have to guess which strain of flu is likely to be most common each season based on observations from the southern hemisphere (which has its winter when the north has its summer), but these are not always correct.
For people rolling up their sleeves to get vaccinated, experts recommend seeing a doctor and discussing medications that may interfere with the shot.
Below, DailyMail.com details some of the medications that could affect the effectiveness of your flu vaccine this season:
Pain medications
Discomfort or pain around the injection site caused by the flu vaccine may lead many to turn to an over-the-counter pain reliever.
These may include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (the active ingredient in Motrin and Advil) and naproxen (the active ingredient in Aleve).
The flu vaccine works by teaching the immune system to recognize and fight the flu virus.
It usually contains an inactivated virus or virus protein that is injected into the blood and triggers an immune response, causing the immune system to produce antibodies (virus-fighting proteins) that remain in the body to fight them.
Doctors recommend avoiding NSAIDs after the flu vaccine because they can blunt the immune response by dramatically reducing antibody production.
This happens because the medications suppress inflammation, reducing the immune response to the vaccine.
Dr. David Topham, a physician at the University of Rochester, said in his university website: “Unless your healthcare provider tells you otherwise, it is best not to take pain relievers for a day or two before your flu shot and for a week afterward.”
However, other pain relievers such as acetaminophen, brand name Tylenol, should be safe after vaccination because they act in the body differently.
prednisone
One of the most widely used medications in the U.S. About 20 million prednisone are prescribed each year.
Prednisone tablets are shown in the photo above. Doctors warn that certain types of these pills can make the flu vaccine less effective
It is a type of steroid used to reduce inflammation and relieve symptoms of many conditions, including arthritis, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, and in organ transplant patients.
But doctors say that if someone takes more than 20 milligrams (mg) per day for two weeks or more, the flu vaccine may be less effective.
This is because, like some over-the-counter pain relievers, it can also reduce the body’s ability to form antibodies, weakening your immune response to the vaccine.
Jodie Pepin, clinical pharmacy program director at Harbor Health in Texas, said AARP: “High doses of steroids can weaken the immune system and potentially reduce the effectiveness of the flu vaccine.”
The CDC says online in reference to prednisone’s interaction with other vaccines, including the MMR vaccine: “A substantially immunosuppressive steroid dose is considered to be more than two weeks of daily receipt of 20 mg or 2 mg/kg body weight.” of prednisone or equivalent.
The usual dose of prednisone ranges from 5 mg to 25 mg in tablets.
steroid injections
About 9 million people receive steroid injections each year in the U.S. to help relieve chronic or long-term pain.
Injections are given in areas such as the hips, knees and shoulders and work by reducing inflammation in the joint, reducing the sensation of pain.
However, research has shown that these injections can affect how the body responds to the flu vaccine.
The New York City Health Department’s previous post urged residents to get vaccinated against the flu.
Dr. William Raoofi, a physician at the Center for Interventional Pain Medicine in Maryland, told AARP: “When a steroid is injected into a joint or epidural space, there is some systemic absorption of the medication, which causes buffering ( in the short term).
“So when you’re vaccinated and exposed to the weakened flu virus, your immune system doesn’t respond as well.”
TO study 2018 A Mayo Clinic study of 15,000 people found that those who received a steroid injection around the same time as the flu vaccine had a 52 percent increased risk of influenza infection compared to those who only received the flu vaccine. flu.
In some cases, patients seeking pain injections will have to be turned away if they recently received a flu vaccine and asked to wait up to two weeks for the body to mount a full response to the vaccine.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy drugs are powerful drugs that fight cancer by attacking and destroying rapidly dividing cells in the body.
But they can fail and attack the immune system, which also contains rapidly dividing cells.
Doctors warn that chemotherapy drugs weaken the immune system, which, in turn, can make the flu vaccine less effective.
They say patients receiving chemotherapy (about 1 million people) should ask their provider if they should also sign up for the flu vaccine.
A previous NIH study suggested that people receiving chemotherapy should receive two doses of the flu vaccine each year for it to be as effective as someone not fighting the disease, who only needs to receive one a year.
Cancer patients are at higher risk of developing flu complications, such as pneumonia, due to their weakened immune systems.
A 2022 study It found that cancer patients had a 41 percent higher risk of death from pneumonia compared to those without cancer.
Those whose cancer had spread throughout the body were twice as likely to die from pneumonia.
biological
Cancer patients can also take a type of medication called a biologic.
These are drugs that bind to cancer cells in the body to help the immune system find and destroy the cancer.
But this can also damage the immune system, making it less able to respond to vaccines and mount a strong immune response.
Doctors say patients taking biologics should talk to their provider about whether they should get a flu shot.
Types of biologics include atezolizumab or Tecentria, avelumab or Bavencio, and pembrolizumab or Keytruda.